Oggun it symbolizes the beginnings, but also the command, the force, the violence, the impulse, the authority, the virility, the youth. It also represents weapons, the danger from iron and fire.
And so is the Oggún dance: dynamic, full of energy, combative, passionate, with very violent movements and tremendous audacity.
La yoruba warrior dance she is intense like himself, full of challenges, energetic and with abrupt and aggressive gestures.
Oggún's dance and the sound of metal
The Yoruba god Oggún dances like the warrior that he is, with a typical battle fortress that can be turned in various ways.
In the Oggún dance, the dancer performs two mimics: the bellicose, in which he brandishes the machete, his symbol par excellence, representative of metals, a weapon of battle and an essential element to make his way in battle scenarios.
In the bellicose dance Oggún dances crouching, advancing on one foot while dragging the other, as if getting rid of an involuntary machete and preparing to fight.
Also Oggún dance it can be laborious. An agricultural character is recognized in his movements, cutting the herbs with the machete or he performs it in the style of the warrior, striking with the hammer.
It is mixed in this case, with the gestures of the blacksmith and striking on the anvil.
Powerful movements in the Oggún dance
To perform the Oggún dance, the dancer dresses like the Yoruba god, with a vest, purple pants, and a flattened hat.
You can also wear a belt made of long palm fibers and a tiger skin bag adorned with snails.
For both dances, widely practiced by folk groups in Cuba, the dancers break the air with their machete by pulling it down, in one advancing with it and in the other hammering like a blacksmith or harvesting like an agricultural worker.
Oggún and his dance They are also representations of Cuban history, in which the machete prevailed as a symbol of struggle and support in the work in the middle of the fields.
